The Chiefs’ unique brand of physical dominance, explained in one play

If there was any doubt about the Chiefs being able to produce explosive plays with a second-year quarterback, those concerns can be put to rest. The Chiefs’ offense did whatever the hell they wanted to against the Chargers.

The Chiefs were already well-run from a schematic standpoint, but their physical dominance on offense was unbelievable. I don’t mean physical in the sense that their offensive line steamrolled the Chargers’ front seven — they physically have a level of explosion that the vast majority of defenses won’t be able to match.

Kansas City gave us a glimpse of things to come in their second preseason game against the Atlanta Falcons when Mahomes threw a pass damn near 70 yards in the air for a touchdown. Hill somehow managed to get behind three defenders as he walked in for an easy score.

Patrick Mahomes and Tyreek Hill have already shown they can connect on plays that no other duo can in the preseason, but the regular season is a different beast. They picked up right where they left off in their season opener against the Chargers.

Hill caught seven of his eight targets for an insane 169 yards and two touchdowns. Their first touchdown of the day stood out in particular.

The Chiefs are running an RPO and they’re outnumbered in the box, forcing Mahomes to pull the ball from Kareem Hunt and throw it down the field. Center Mitch Morse immediately gets beat off the snap by Brandon Mebane, cutting down the window that Mahomes is able to throw into. Mebane is almost in his lap before he can finish his drop on the play.

Rifling a pass into the teeth of a zone defense is hard enough on it’s own, it’s damn near impossible with a 300-pound man right in your grill. Mahomes had to revert back to his baseball days and sling the ball out of there like he was throwing the first out of a double play.

The accuracy and velocity on this pass are incredible considering the circumstances. He knows he’s about to get walloped by the incoming Mebane, but he holds strong a delivers a strike to Hill.

Hill had some of his own wizardry on display here — outside of hitting the burners and leaving the entire Chargers defense in the dust for a long touchdown. In the time it takes for Mebane to reach Mahomes, Hill is already down the field at the perfect spot to catch this pass with plenty of room to run.

Once Hill caught the ball, the play was essentially over. His world-class speed paired with elite ball carrying skills was all he needed to run away from the Chargers secondary on his way into the end zone.

Hill is clearly their best offensive weapon right now, but they still have a ton of playmakers outside of him. Travis Kelce, Kareem Hunt, and Sammy Watkins have all shown the ability to dominate games with big plays. Those three didn’t even produce that much in their season opener — they combined for 20 touches, 76 yards, and no touchdowns. The fact Kansas City was able to drop 38 points without the help of those three has to be terrifying for the rest of the AFC West.

If Mahomes can play at a similar level all season, the Chiefs should easily have one of the most productive offenses in football. They’re still sporting a Swiss cheese defense, so they’ll likely have to rely on their offense to carry the load for them.

After their first game, this seems more than possible — it even seems likely. Stopping this connection will be extremely difficult for defensive coordinators. Drawing up the perfect gameplan is nice, but very few defenses (if any) have the sheer athleticism on the backend to stop them completely.

Their best plan action might be blitzing to make life uncomfortable for Mahomes and pray that their defensive backs can hold up in man coverage. It’s going to be an extremely difficult task for NFL defenses for the rest of the season.

The Chiefs will have to rely on their howitzer-armed quarterback and speed demon wide receivers to make plays, to the delight of NFL fans everywhere. Buckle up, we still get at least 15 more games of this.